


No Strings Attached

by Bugzyboi



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Arguing, Basically, Blood and Gore, Dark Comedy, Dead People, Deceit Sanders-centric, Deceit ducks out, Imagination, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Intrusive Thoughts, Isolation, Lack of Communication, M/M, Misunderstandings, Morally Ambiguous Character, Other, Remus being Remus, Sympathetic Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Tags May Change, Unsympathetic Anxiety | Virgil Sanders, Unsympathetic Morality | Patton Sanders, Violence, intrusive thinking, its none of the sides dont worry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-18
Updated: 2019-12-10
Packaged: 2021-02-12 17:28:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21480136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bugzyboi/pseuds/Bugzyboi
Summary: Deceit is sick of being treated like he's worthless to Thomas. So he ducks out, drops all his duties, and isolates himself away from the light sides.
Relationships: Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders/Deceit Sanders
Comments: 33
Kudos: 310





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is the first sanders side fanfic I'm actually posting! Enjoy!
> 
> Oh! Warnings for this chapter: arguments, mentions of unaccepting relatives, and blood.  


“Thomas, you can’t be serious-” Virgil seethes through clenched teeth. 

Thomas glances at the camera and bit his lip. Once again, he was faced with a dilemma. Visiting crazy, insane relatives with questionable morals or staying home but explaining _why_ he wasn’t coming. He doesn’t feel like spending Thanksgiving with his cousin or aunt that criticizes his sexuality or love life constantly. He also didn’t want to explain to his parents or any of his other relatives why he wasn’t coming (and possibly creating a divide in the family). 

Patton and Virgil badger Thomas while Logan threw his opinion in every few minutes. Roman had tried to argue with Virgil at the beginning but had grown tired of being ignored. 

And that’s when Deceit shows up. 

“Just in time,” Virgil mutters and crosses his arms. 

Deceit ignores Virgil’s comment. “Thomas already made his mind up.” 

“What?” Patton says and looks over at Thomas. 

“Really?!” Roman asks with excitement but quickly masks his excitement with an annoyed frown. 

“He can’t stand them,” Deceit says simply. “Why visit a group of people who berate your beliefs that you just so happen to share blood relations with?”

“It’s his family!” Patton argues. 

“A family he can’t stand!” Roman blurts out, “Why waste our hours with them when we could be spending time with Mr. Perfect down the street?”

“Speaking objectively,” Logan starts, quieting the argument, “If Thoams were to visit for the weekend, his mental health would suffer from increased anxiety and stress from his family member. At the same time, Thomas going would let his reputation in the family stay the same. No knowledge of his distaste for most of his distant relatives.” 

“But that’s wrong!” Patton huffs as if nobody was understanding him. 

“And why is it so wrong to distance yourself from toxic people?” Deceit cuts in. _ God, this is exhausting. _

“Because his family cares about him!” 

Deceit’s eyebrow twitches. “Which part of him? The fact he’s forced to keep track of his younger family members practically every gathering? The fact he will do almost anything for someone if they ask nicely? Is it his following of millions? Or- no, it’s definitely the fact he has a kind heart.” Deceit hisses the last few words. 

“Why are you even here?!” Virgil breaks the silence Deceit’s spiel brought. “Nobody even asked you to show up! We were doing perfectly fine without you!” 

Deceit freezes and locks eyes with Virgil. Virgil looks like he has something on the tip of his tongue but decides to just glare at him.

“You know what? Virgil might be on to something,” Deceit begins with a neutral voice, no emotions present, “I do hope everything goes well, Thomas.” Deceit says and disappears. 

The room is silent while they process what just happened. 

“Anyways,” Roman says and the conversation continues. 

.....

Deceit storms through the Dark Sides mind palace. Remus was on the floor writing in a leatherbound journal with a quill. By the looks of it, the ink he was writing with was actually just blood.

“Hey Double Dee, what’s got your rattle shaking?” Remus greets and jumps off the ground. 

“I quit,” Deceit hisses. Usually, he would humor Remus’s nicknames and mannerisms but he was **not **in the mood. 

“I’m sorry, what?” Remus says, scratching the side of his head.

“I quit. I’m officially ducking out. If Thomas or anybody else cannot see how I’m trying to help, there’s no use trying. If nobody cares about your existence, why try?” Deceit continues walking towards his room with Remus bouncing next to him. 

“But I love you! And your scales- oh, by the way, I saw this cool scale soup recipe and I was wondering-” 

“I’m not even going to humor you with that,” Deceit says as he finally reached his room. Remus frowned.

“You’re not gonna 100% duck out, right?” Remus asked in a nervous tone. Deceit looks at Remus and gives him a sad smile. 

“I would hate myself if I ever left you like that,” Deceit says.

Remus frowns when Deceit’s door closes. _ He never answered the question. _

  
.....

“So it’s settled then?” Thomas asks and he looks at the four sides. They all made a noise of confirmation. Thomas takes his phone out and begins dialing a number. 

“Better now than never, Kiddo!” Patton says with a grin, happy he was able to convince Thomas to go to the family gathering. 

Roman looks less than happy as Thomas’s mother picks up. He really didn’t want to go to the family gathering, but it was hard to argue when the pestering thought that he was influencing Thomas for the worse kept bugging him. 

“Hey,” Thomas greets his mother through the phone, “I’m only going to the family gathering to see a max of nine people but also mainly out of fear of the family as a whole.” 

A confused “What?” quietly echoed through the line. 

“Hang up. _Hang up!_ **HANG UP!**” Virgil’s voice yelled distortedly. 

“Thomas, what was that?!” Roman asked and ran a hand through his hair. 

Thomas quickly muttered an apologetic goodbye to his mother before hanging up. “I dunno! I just couldn’t help it!” 

Logan's eyes lit up, “Deceit ducked out.” Everyone looked over at Logan. “Though, we can't be certain...Oh! Okay, Thomas, I am going to need you to lie about something- anything.” 

“Right now? Oh uh…” Thomas furrowed his eyebrows. nothing was coming to mind. At all. “I...I can’t.” 

“So Lies and Dolls quit?” Roman asked no one in particular. 

“That’s not...terrible..?” Patton says with uneasiness. _ That came out wrong,_ Patton thought and bit his lip. “I mean- now Thomas just can’t tell lies. What could go wrong?” 

.....

Deceit watched his snake companions slither around his windowsill and on his bed. One of them even wrapped around his hat in an attempt to make him smile. It usually worked, but not today. 

Deceit pulled a heated blanket over himself and ignored the pain in his chest. Ignoring the fact that the only side that really cared about him was Remus was hard. It wasn’t because he thought Remus was bad- good and bad were social constructs ingrained into society purely for comfort- no. He just kind of wished his work was noticed for once. He didn’t just have a single purpose. 

Like the others, Deceit was more than just his name. Deceit controlled the dark side of the Mind Palace (which included keeping the sides resigning in the dark side of the Mind Palace in check). That in itself should be a stressful enough job. He was deception and self-preservation at the same time. If Thomas nor anybody else saw how important any of his jobs were then that was their problem to deal with. 

“Double Dee~!” 

Deceit was thrown from his thoughts as Remus’s screech rang through the dark side common room and steadily towards Deceit’s room. 

“Dee Dee?” Remus asked as he got to the door. Violent knocking only increased the headache forming in the back of Deceit’s head. 

Deceit grumbled a confirmation to come in. He knew that if he didn’t Remus would just knock the door down unless Deceit really wanted to be alone. 

Remus kicked the door open.

“You’ll never guess what I found in the Imagination!”

“Oh do tell,” Deceit murmurs as he reorganized his bed. Remus went on to talk about an abandoned castle with a secret tunnel leading to some hidden village. Deceit usually loved listening to Remus’s questionable quests but he felt too bitter towards the other sides to even humor his lover when asked what he did to the heads of the men of the village. 

“Are- Are you okay, Dee?” Remus asks as he looks at Deceit, tilting his head to the side.

Deceit looked tired. He was paler than usual and the scales on his face were a more muted green-yellow color. His eyes were red- _ he’s been crying or, at the very least, extremely upset,_ Remus noted. 

“Just a little exhausted,” Deceit sighs and cranks a nearby heater up that sat on the windowsill, the side of Imagination that Remus owns roaring outside. The muted noises of growling and screaming were like white noise. Though, it was quieter than usual.

“Ooh, need a little pick-me-up, Snake Cake?” Remus grins and wraps his arms around Deceit from behind. 

“No, not really. Your pick-me-ups usually involve dead animals or children.” 

Remus laughs in his regular high-pitch cackling that echoes through the room. 

Despite his headache, Deceit couldn’t help but left out a small chuckle as Remus falls off the bed while in his laughing fit. 

Remus was the only person Deceit could think that would feel any sort of sadness if he were to cease to exist. The other sides were wet eyes and quivering lies. Did they forget he was _Deceit?_ He could sense their lies even from the safety of his room. 

Remus was still on the floor, now twirling his mustache absent-mindedly as he stared up at the ceiling. _Most likely thinking about new plans for the Imagination_, Deceit thought as Remus continued to stare off.

Deceit smiled at Remus and pulled the blankets around him closer.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for this chapter: mentions of character death, gore, demon-monster-thing (not sure what to call it, but there's like four sentences for the creature (???), mentions of character neglect
> 
> This took longer than what I expected to post because I forgot my computer somewhere and couldn't get it for a week D:  
Emjoy!

Logan crossed out the box for the day in Thomas’s calendar. Most goals were met and the ones that were not fulfilled could easily get done tomorrow. He wrote down a few notes for tomorrow before pinning the calendar back up on his wall. 

“Looks good, Logan,” Patton compliments from behind him. 

“Thank you, Patton,” Logan sighs. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy Patton’s presence most days, but he still had work to do and Patton was being a little ridiculous. 

Ever since Logan proved Deceit dropping his duties as a side, Patton had been hovering on him, Roman, and Virgil nonstop. It didn’t make sense. Why would any of them drop their jobs just because one side did? 

“Would you like something, Patton?” Logan finally asks as he makes sure the calendar is straight on his wall. 

“Oh- uh, no- just making sure you were doing okay, Kiddo!” Patton says and folds his hands behind his back. 

“I would like to work in peace, if you don’t mind,” Logan says and set his marker down on his desk. 

“Right, sorry,” Patton says sheepishly and exited. Logan watched the moral side leave before he dug a journal out from his desk drawer. He pulls open the latch and grabs his pen. 

** _It appears Patton is still on edge about Deceit. I’m unsure why, but my best guess has to be his conflict with Deceit and Patton’s natures figuratively clashing._ **

** _Deceit’s impact on Thomas’s life was more influential than I believe any of us previously thought. Thomas has been selflessly impulsive to an unhealthy amount. A few of Thomas’s friends, particularly Joan, have expressed their concern. Thomas is acting as selfless as he is kind- an irritating happenstance. _ **

** _Thomas currently cannot tell any falsehoods. Patton believes this to be okay. I’m unsure how to remind Patton how much each side is important to Thomas. It isn’t my job to secure emotional stability throughout the sides- that is Patton and Deceit’s job, though the others do take part in some aspect of emotion stability as well. I’m unsure what to do when neither are doing their job correctly- or at all. _ **

** _The idea of a side quitting their job is fascinating. What would their function be? Virgil has previously stopped his duties as a side, but that was only for a small amount of time. It has been a couple of days since Deceit’s decision to duck out. _ **

** _Is it possible for a side to die? Do they cease to exist? Who is handed the duties of the deceased? How long would it take for a side to quit that their duties are transferred? Does a side ceasing to exist make Thomas unable to mobilize those functions? I cannot answer these questions, which is upsetting. _ **

Logan set his pen down. This was enough writing for now. If he were to continue down this path of thought, it would only worsen his mood. He latched the journal and stashed it away in his desk drawer. 

Logan made his way out of his room, coffee mug in hand, and greets Virgil. Virgil was sitting on the ground next to the sink. _ Odd, but not unusual _, Logan thinks as he looks at the side. 

“There are chairs, you know,” Logan says as he begins to fill his mug with more coffee. 

Virgil looks up at Logan. “Yeah, I know.” 

Logan gives him a look before sprinkling a dash of sugar into his coffee. Like Thomas’s taste in men, he preferred it if it wasn’t straight. Too much sugar made his teeth hurt and too little made him gag. Call him picky, but Logan defends his preference on balance.

“Are you alright?” Logan asks as he analyzes Virgil. The side looked tired. The eyeshadow under his eyes was deeper and he looked paler.

“I worried about...the others,” Virgil mumbles in a low voice. He pulls his hoodie over his head. 

“Why is that?” Logan asks and takes a sip of his coffee. 

“Deceit controls the others. What if he stopped? They’ll finally have a chance of achieving their dreams,” Virgil’s talking pace picks up. He rubbed his hands on his face with a defeated sigh. 

“If Deceit decides to let the dark sides do whatever they want, Thomas’s lack of acknowledgment towards them would,” Logan assures.

.Virgil combs a hand through his hair and nods, “I-I guess you’re right…” 

“Of course I am- why wouldn’t I be right?” Logan asks and frowns. 

“Nevermind, just go back to doing your nerd stuff, Microsoft,” Virgil rolls his eyes and jumps off the floor. He begins pushing Logan out of the kitchen and doesn’t try to hide his grin from the logical side. 

…..

Thomas stuffs the last of his clothes into his suitcase. He was only going to be gone a few days, but he could never be sure how much he needed to pack. He always forgets a thing or two whenever he travels. After double and triple checking to make sure he had everything, he zips his suitcase up and sets it down on his floor. 

Thomas sets his alarm and gets into bed. He was exhausted. Even since Deceit ducked out, he’s been so busy. When he wasn’t helping his friends with whatever they needed, he was answering tweets and replying to comments on his posts and videos. He wanted to resolve things between everyone but he wasn’t sure how. He couldn’t seem to catch a break.

Thomas rubs his hands on his face and fixed his sleeping position before opening his phone up. It wouldn’t hurt to watch a couple of videos before bed. 

…..

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Remus asks and grins up expectantly at Deceit. 

Deceit looks at the castle- burnt vines of thorns wrap around the dark castle walls, unknown splatters painted down the road that led to the doors of the castle, flames burn in the area surrounding the castle. 

“Which part? This all looks dreadful, but what’s been added to your raging garbage fire?” Deceit asks as he watches Remus’s side of the Imagination. 

“The spider wall!” Remus says and shoves the picnic basket into Deceit’s hands. Remus sprinted towards the castle and leaves Deceit standing to watch. 

Deceit pushes the basket handle down to his elbow. He looks down at his gloved hands and sighs, pulling a glove off and staring down at his hand. The effects of ducking out were starting to show. He put on more make-up than usual to hide how pale he was getting. 

Times like this made him wonder what would happen if he were to die. Remus has killed him plenty of times before, both on accident and for fun (Though Remus hasn’t purposely killed him in quite a few years). But was permanent death possible?

Remus would be devastated, Deceit was sure. They stuck through everything together. Before it was only the two of them, Virgil was part of their little family. (The other sides that lived on this side of the mindscape didn’t care for being part of the ‘family’.) Virgil leaving on strengthened their relationship. 

Other than Remus, there wasn’t a side that would mourn, was there? Patton might feel slightly bad, but he’d be glad he didn’t have to deal with Deceit anymore. Virgil would probably be happy. The only reason Deceit could find that Roman would feel bad would be fore his brother- and even that was questionable. Maybe Logan might care. Logan was aware of the need for all the sides. It was tricky to guess Logan’s stance. 

A heart squirting out dark, almost black, blood thrown at his face snaps Deceit out of his thinking. Deceit swerves his body and the organ nearly misses his head. A growling dog-like figure from nowhere caught the organ in the air with sharp teeth. Before Deceit could question the demon...thing, it ran off. 

“Awh, I missed,” Remus said sadly as he began running back to where Deceit was across the field of dried grass.

Deceit huffs and looks down at his capelet. A small line of blood had already dried into the dark fabric. Deceit snapped and the blood evaporated from existence. 

The two sides found a nice place under a burnt tree to sit down and have their picnic. A dense forest split the Imagination in half. One half was Roman’s, full of beautiful fields surrounding a bright kingdom full of hope that Remus could hear from his side sometimes.

The other half was Remus’s plane, spontaneous horrors and unchecked impulses ran throughout the kingdom.

Deceit thinks it’s strangely beautiful. 

…..

  
  


Remus looked at his hand in awe. It worked. _ It actually worked! _

The door actually opened when he twisted the handle. The door that led to the light side’s area in the mindscape. Before, Deceit was the only thing holding Remus from running through the door. 

Dread shifts in Remus’s mind as he begins thinking. If Remus could do it then so could any other side. 'light' or 'dark' alike. Thomas’s mental state was suffering. Remus swings the door open even more and frowns. Remus was never around when Thomas made videos- well, except once. He never knew how the videos went or really the dynamic up over there.

_ There’s nothing wrong with a little chat. _ Remus jumps through the door and quietly shuts the door, hoping nobody could sense the shift in the mindscape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What's this?? A cliffhanger? By me??? It's more common than you think!!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :D

“He’s probably just trying to prove something- I doubt he actually cares.” Remus hears Virgil mutter from the staircase. 

Remus’s grip on his morningstar tightens. Oh, how he awaits the day he can dismember these assholes and stuff their heads in his trophy case. He bets Deceit would be so proud of him, too! 

Remus shifts in his position at the top floor. He had positioned himself just around the corner of the stairs. 

_ Now or never.  _

With an unholy screech, Remus leaps from the top of the stairs and swings his weapon at the side’s head. 

Virgil’s body slumps to the ground. Roman shrieks and jumps off the couch, pulling his sword out. 

“What’s going on-  _ Virgi _ l!” Patton cries as he runs in, checking on the body on the floor. Patton sits Virgil up and sets him against the wall. Virgil groans at the movement.

“What? I can’t have a little fun?”

“We aren’t your play toys, Remus.”

“Ehhh, more or less,” Remus put a hand behind his back to pull something out, but Roman runs forward and grabs the shaft of his brother’s weapon and pushes it away. The spiked ball crashes into the stairs and Remus falls with his weapon. He grabs a handful of Roman’s sash and drags his brother with him. 

“How the hell did you even get up here?!” Roman asks and manages to pin Remus down with his elbow at his brother’s throat. 

Virgil groans and rubs the back of his head. “Did Deceit send you up here?” Virgil slurs, slowly getting up from his place on the floor. 

Remus stared at Virgil with wide, unblinking eyes. The common room’s silence breaks with Remus’s laugh, cold and harsh. 

“Oh,  _ please _ , DeeDee doesn’t even know I’m here,” Remus opens his mouth and snaps his jaw shut on Roman’s forearm. 

“OW- you little-” Roman lets out a yelp of pain and unsuccessfully tries to pry his arm from his brother’s mouth. He grabs Remus by the neck and vigorously shakes his brother. 

“What...is happening..?” Logan asks as he steps into the common room, clipboard in one hand and pen in the other. An eyebrow is raised as he looks at the scene in front of him: Roman strangling his brother, Remus, who had managed to get into the light side common area. Remus was holding on to Roman’s forearm as if his life depended on it. Virgil was leaning against the wall looking like he just woke up from a fifty-year coma. Patton looks like he’s about to explode from everything going on. 

Remus raises his and snaps. When nothing happens, he makes a small whine from the back of his throat and drops his hand. He forgot this wasn’t his domain.

Logan clips his pen to his clipboard and hands it to a confused Virgil. He grabs the sword that Roman had dropped in his fight with Remus. 

“I have no idea how to use this thing, but I’m not afraid to try,” Logan says and raises the weapon towards the twins. 

..... 

Thomas rubs the side of his head as he makes his way around the house. The house was just outside of a small town. His headache he woke up with keeps getting worse as the day goes by. He’d have to ask if somebody inside had anything he’d be able to take for it. He knew he forgot to pack something. 

“Oh, Thomas! How are you?” Thoams hears one of his cousins ask as he opens the door to the house. 

“Eh, it’s alright. I’ve been better,” Thomas says truthfully, cringing to himself to his answer. 

“Oh, well, let’s get you inside!”

.....

“Ooh, Roman, what if he skins us alive and lets Patton made a nice little stew!” Remus asks and claps his hands together in excitement.

“Ew- Wh-Why would I do that?!” Patton cries and shakes his head. 

“That would take too much effort,” Logan mutters and sets the sword down. Virgil scrunches his face up and gives Logan his clipboard out. 

“Maybe the broth could be made out of our-” Remus started but Roman pressed his hand against his brother’s mouth. 

“For once, I actually _ wish _ Deceit was here just to shut you up,” Virgil mutters and frowns at Remus. 

Remus glares at Virgil and pulls a spare knife from inside his shirt and flings it at Virgil. 

Virgil stumbles back as the knife hits him in the middle of his forehead. Patton lets out a cut-off scream as it hits the side. Virgil snaps the knife away with his fingers. 

“Dee’s never been a problem,  _ Nightmare on Sanders Street _ . But now he really won’t be. He barely comes out of his room anymore because of you assholes.” 

“What do you mean..?” Patton asks with a tilt of his head. Remus wanted to stab the dad-like figure in the head. He was annoyingly oblivious. 

“What do you  _ think _ ,  _ Daddy DeVito? _ ” Remus says with a roll of his eyes. “What do you think I mean when I say he won’t come out of his room anymore? That sounds pretty straightforward to me.” 

“So he actually ducked out?” Romas asks. 

“Well, duh. How do you think I got up here?” Remus says as if it was obvious. “You think Deceit would let come up here unless it was for a reason? He doesn’t even know I’m here.” 

Patton’s eyes widen at the realization. “He’s supposed to control the others down there. That’s his job.” 

“Didn’t you hear? He dropped everything-  ** _everything!_ ** Thanks for that, by the way, he looks like shit.” 

Logan poofs his clipboard away and replaces it with a leather journal. He unclips the latch and conjures a pen in his hand. “Would you care to elaborate, Remus? “ Logan asks, eyes sparkling with curiosity.

Remus opens his mouth to elaborate but before he could, a black hole forms underneath where Remus sits on the stairs. His eyes widen as he realizes what was happening. 

“Shit,” Remus curses and he falls through the hole with a scream. 

The other sides are quiet as the hole closes and the dark side is gone. 

“I think he found out,” Roman says with a confused hum.

.....

“Hey! I was having fun!” Remus complains as he falls into the dark sides common room. He jumps up from the ground and runs over to Deceit, who was leaning against one of the walls.

“My bad,” Deceit drawls and fixes his gloves. He would never admit it, but just teleporting Remus back to the dark side of the mindscape had put a strain on him.

“Besides, it’s not like they didn’t deserve it!” Remus argues as Deceit begins walking away. “Dee, please- talk to me!” 

“Remus-” Deceit begins but stops, thinking about how to phrase his wording, “I’ve had a lot of time to think since I’ve quit.”

“Like what..?” Remus asks, nervous as to where the conversation was heading.

“I’m aware that my functions are vital to Thomas. Every side is. But, truthfully, I’m starting to second-guess how vital I am.”

“Dee-” Remus tries arguing but Deceit hushed him quietly. He never used his powers of silence to Remus. The only time Deceit did was when he first met Remus out of panic. 

Deceit titled his head up and pressed his lips against the corner of Remus’s lips in a soft kiss. 

“Just drop it- please?” Deceit asks with an exhausted sigh, walking into his room. Deceit begins to shut the door, but Remus shoves his foot in the doorway. 

“Wait!” Remus pleads, “Let me take you to the Imagination some time! You can sit your beautiful ass down with me by that one stream you like with the snake nest! Whaddya say, DeeDee?” 

Deceit bit his lip. “Of course, Love,” Deceit says with a loving sigh before shutting his door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tests are coming up so I'm not going to be able to posts as often but I hope you liked it! Maybe give some kudos or a comment if you did?  
Bye!


End file.
